Taylor Swift on Why She's Happy to Be The Good Girl

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"I've had countless opportunities to do some really bad things," she told the April issue of ELLE magazine.

But the country-pop crossover star said one reason she avoids temptation is to keep the tabloids from finding where she is, and applying a filter to them.

"Then people start combing through everything that I do trying to find the next mistake and misperception," the 20-year-old told the mag. "[That] leads to more scrutiny. Like, if I go to a bar, even if I'm not drinking, who's to say that a source isn't going to say that I was doing something I shouldn't have been doing? So it's not only about your own moral compass, but the moral compasses of other people that you don't know."

But she explained that her desire to avoid misperceptions doesn't mean she's not living the "Fearless" life.

"You're thinking, 'This is a giant boatload of fear,'" she told the mag. "But as you can see, I over-think everything. I overanalyze everything."

But while she doesn't do things that could be misconstrued in public, Taylor has a blast behind closed doors. She's renovating what she calls her "fantasy world" in her first home, a 15-minute drive from her parents' abode in Nashville.

"I just got it into my head that there was this magical place that I needed to go to because that was where dreams come true," she said of the home, which will include a room with a sort of giant bird cage and water feature.

And it's in that room where Taylor plans to write more songs – including those about the dissolution of love.

"I like to categorize the various levels of heartbreaks," she said.

So far, Taylor said she has had just one bad break-up in her life.

"A letdown is worth a few songs. A heartbreak is worth a few albums," she said.